One of the greatest attributes of God is His amazing ability to forgive. All we have to do is ask and he gives it. We receive it even when we've most certainly not earned or deserved it. Have you noticed that more times than not, when we are asked to be the forgiver that we are much less willing to do it? When I was reading the scripture from yesterday and today, forgiveness is the concept that seemed to jump off the page and stare me down with almost every page.
I opened my reading with Jacob, his wives and children fleeing from his father-in-law Laban. After 20 years of living in Paddan Aram away from his homeland, it was finally time to be reunited with his brother Esau. Let's not forget this is the same brother whose blessing and birthright he stole. Jacob approached the meeting with Esau with fear that he would still carry anger or even hatred from those events so many years ago. However, all that fear was completely unnecessary. Esau's reaction when they actually met was that of complete forgiveness of any wrong that had ever been done and pure happiness in seeing his brother again. " But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept." Genesis 33:4-5
Next is one of my favorite Old Testament stories. Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, was despised by his brothers because they believed he was Jacob's favorite son. Joseph's brothers (save Reuben) wanted him dead and sold him into slavery. Joseph ended up being wrongly accused and thrown into jail in Egypt. But because of his ability to interpret dreams, Joseph was brought out of jail a short while later was second only to Pharaoh. When Joseph's brothers came before him begging for his help he showed a level of forgiveness that could only come from God. Most of us would have been bitter, angry and probably still hurt about the events of the past. "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then don't be afraid, I will provide for you and your children." Genesis 50:20-21
We should all pray for the ability to be forgiving. I'll be the first one to admit that I have a grudge holding problem and that without Jesus I wouldn't be able to forgive at all. So let's stop being bitter grudge holders and work on being more forgiving.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
Jesus Doesn't do Vacations
It's taken me several weeks to talk myself into writing this post. It's hard to admit to yourself that you've either (1) been a slacker or (2) taken on too much at once. So, I just decided to adopt the attitude of a three year old: if I can't see it then it can't see me. After my last blog post I took a trip back home to Kentucky for Christmas during which both of my kids got double ear infections. A short time after coming back to Washington and getting my house in order again my Grandma passed away and back to Kentucky I flew. My five year old is in every activity possible and we only have one free day a week. I kept justifying my absence here by letting the events in my life count as valid excuses for ignoring my Bible and reflection time. Truth is, Jesus doesn't do vacations or get time off and neither should I. No matter what is going on in my life at the moment, Jesus never abandons me so I shouldn't abandon Him. Game on Satan, game on.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Hello Roadblock #1
Well it took me all of five days to encounter my first Bible reading roadblock which led to a week long time out from the blogging. I did read at least a little bit on most non-blog days but just couldn't seem to find the time or motivation to write about what I read. Christmas shopping, mixed with legal researching and trying to prepare for a three week long across the country trip are not the ingredients needed for following this plan of mine. However, my head is now back in the game so let's continue with where I left off last week and go on to what I read on my hiatus from the writing world. ~ Genesis 24-27 ~
The story of Abraham, Sarah and Isaac is one that I have heard on more than one occasion (in reality it's probably been more than 50 occasions). Nevertheless it is one that I love to hear. As we read about earlier, these two were on the far end of the age spectrum when they conceived and brought a son into the world. They tried without success for decades to have a child and were starting to think that it just wasn't in the cards for them. I can't imagine wanting a child that badly and going through decade after decade with an empty uterus. This is a great reminder to us that God's timing is always perfect even when we just don't believe it at the moment.
Fast forward several years. God had promised Abraham and Sarah a son even though they were well past child bearing age and he delivered (no pun intended I swear). Just think about the pure joy they must have felt when Sarah finally gave birth to their son. I'm sure they called him their miracle baby. I'm sure he was as spoiled as a child could be several thousand years ago. And I'm sure that Abraham was devastated when God asked him to sacrifice him as a burnt offering. The processing of that thought must have been horrific. It takes Abraham and Isaac all of two verses to make the trek up the mountain to the place God wanted it to take place. In real time it took them over two full days to get there. Two full days to think about exactly what he had to do. Two full days of looking for any excuse to turn around and go back home. Must have been the most difficult two days of Abraham's life. Yet he didn't doubt God and proceeded to obey him fully and without hesitation. Because of that blind, unyielding obedience Isaac's life was spared and a ram was sent as a substitute offering.
Years later comes another account of sibling rivalry proving that it must be something as natural to us humans as sin. Issac and his wife Rebekah had twin sons, Esau (the older one) and Jacob (the younger one). When he was old and ill Isaac asked Esau to go out into the field, catch some game to make him a meal, and come back to receive his blessing. While Esau was gone hunting, Rebekah helped Jacob fix Esau's favorite meal and sent him into Isaac cleverly disguised as his brother. (To anyone not familiar with this story, Isaac was very old and could not see. Esau was very hairy so Jacob was covered in animal hair making Isaac believe it was really Esau if he touched him). Isaac was in fact deceived and gave Jacob Esau's blessing. I don't know about anyone else but the fact that Rebekah aided this scheme made me angrier than the fact that Jacob actually carried it out. I don't understand how a mother can play favorites that blatantly. Come on woman!
Sorry to you and myself that I have taken so long of a break. With God's motivation I plan to stay on track from here on out with much shorter breaks if a break is needed. Happy reading everybody.
The story of Abraham, Sarah and Isaac is one that I have heard on more than one occasion (in reality it's probably been more than 50 occasions). Nevertheless it is one that I love to hear. As we read about earlier, these two were on the far end of the age spectrum when they conceived and brought a son into the world. They tried without success for decades to have a child and were starting to think that it just wasn't in the cards for them. I can't imagine wanting a child that badly and going through decade after decade with an empty uterus. This is a great reminder to us that God's timing is always perfect even when we just don't believe it at the moment.
Fast forward several years. God had promised Abraham and Sarah a son even though they were well past child bearing age and he delivered (no pun intended I swear). Just think about the pure joy they must have felt when Sarah finally gave birth to their son. I'm sure they called him their miracle baby. I'm sure he was as spoiled as a child could be several thousand years ago. And I'm sure that Abraham was devastated when God asked him to sacrifice him as a burnt offering. The processing of that thought must have been horrific. It takes Abraham and Isaac all of two verses to make the trek up the mountain to the place God wanted it to take place. In real time it took them over two full days to get there. Two full days to think about exactly what he had to do. Two full days of looking for any excuse to turn around and go back home. Must have been the most difficult two days of Abraham's life. Yet he didn't doubt God and proceeded to obey him fully and without hesitation. Because of that blind, unyielding obedience Isaac's life was spared and a ram was sent as a substitute offering.
Years later comes another account of sibling rivalry proving that it must be something as natural to us humans as sin. Issac and his wife Rebekah had twin sons, Esau (the older one) and Jacob (the younger one). When he was old and ill Isaac asked Esau to go out into the field, catch some game to make him a meal, and come back to receive his blessing. While Esau was gone hunting, Rebekah helped Jacob fix Esau's favorite meal and sent him into Isaac cleverly disguised as his brother. (To anyone not familiar with this story, Isaac was very old and could not see. Esau was very hairy so Jacob was covered in animal hair making Isaac believe it was really Esau if he touched him). Isaac was in fact deceived and gave Jacob Esau's blessing. I don't know about anyone else but the fact that Rebekah aided this scheme made me angrier than the fact that Jacob actually carried it out. I don't understand how a mother can play favorites that blatantly. Come on woman!
Sorry to you and myself that I have taken so long of a break. With God's motivation I plan to stay on track from here on out with much shorter breaks if a break is needed. Happy reading everybody.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Turn the page
I am just going to admit it. I am such a nerd. I'm not just saying that because it is the new cool. (Is that true? I have no idea it just sounded good). I am a deep to the core bonafide nerd. My first thoughts when I opened my Bible last night were of how much I love the sound of pages turning. The pages crinkling as they move excite me and make me eager to keep reading. However, once I get distracted by anything it usually snowballs and it took me a few minutes to stop singing Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" to myself and be able to concentrate.
Genesis chapters 19-23 are my subjects today. I read the majority of these scriptures with my mouth hanging open in somewhat of a shocked state. Since it's been quite awhile since I've read these stories there were parts that I had totally forgotten and others that were completely new to me.
Chapter 19 depicts the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities past the threshold of corruption that were on God's you-must-be-destroyed list. Abraham's nephew Lot was residing in Sodom with his wife and daughters. When two angels appeared in the city on a quest to destroy it, Lot gave them shelter in his home. What followed startled me so much I checked five other translations to make sure I was reading it right. All five said the same thing in only slightly different words. Some men came to Lots home that same evening and demanded "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." Lot's answer was as shocking to me as this question. He said and I quote "Don't do this wicked thing. Look I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men..." After reading that particular conversation there was a very loud mental dialogue that I had with myself consisting mostly of "!!!!!!!!!!!!" I know that things were vastly different with the view of women back then and I'm not going to pretend that I know much about it, but coming from my 21st century post feminist perspective this seemed really out of line. Perhaps the most shocking detail in this little narrative, for me anyway, is that Lot was the most righteous man in this city and was allowed, along with his family, to flee before the city was destroyed.
Now we move on to the rest of this chapter. Again the shock factor here is most likely just the result of a Grand Canyon sized generation gap, but even knowing that, I still can't help but be a little freaked out. After Lot and his daughters escaped Sodom and Gomorrahgeddon they settled into the mountains. Lot's wife unfortunately became overwhelmed with curiosity (I'm starting to think that curiosity is a fatal flaw) and turned back to look at the burning cities after being instructed not to. Anywho, Lot's daughters realized that there were no men in proximity to impregnate them and carry on their family line. So of course the obvious answer was to get their dad drunk and get pregnant by him.
The last chapters of my reading goes back to the story of Abraham and his long awaited son Isaac so I will wait until tomorrow's blog to include any discussion about that. It will flow better with tomorrow's reading. After what we've discussed today, nobody can say that the Bible is boring. It certainly does not lack drama, suspense, love, hate, and even horror that people love to read about. I'm looking forward to what comes next.
Genesis chapters 19-23 are my subjects today. I read the majority of these scriptures with my mouth hanging open in somewhat of a shocked state. Since it's been quite awhile since I've read these stories there were parts that I had totally forgotten and others that were completely new to me.
Chapter 19 depicts the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities past the threshold of corruption that were on God's you-must-be-destroyed list. Abraham's nephew Lot was residing in Sodom with his wife and daughters. When two angels appeared in the city on a quest to destroy it, Lot gave them shelter in his home. What followed startled me so much I checked five other translations to make sure I was reading it right. All five said the same thing in only slightly different words. Some men came to Lots home that same evening and demanded "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." Lot's answer was as shocking to me as this question. He said and I quote "Don't do this wicked thing. Look I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men..." After reading that particular conversation there was a very loud mental dialogue that I had with myself consisting mostly of "!!!!!!!!!!!!" I know that things were vastly different with the view of women back then and I'm not going to pretend that I know much about it, but coming from my 21st century post feminist perspective this seemed really out of line. Perhaps the most shocking detail in this little narrative, for me anyway, is that Lot was the most righteous man in this city and was allowed, along with his family, to flee before the city was destroyed.
Now we move on to the rest of this chapter. Again the shock factor here is most likely just the result of a Grand Canyon sized generation gap, but even knowing that, I still can't help but be a little freaked out. After Lot and his daughters escaped Sodom and Gomorrahgeddon they settled into the mountains. Lot's wife unfortunately became overwhelmed with curiosity (I'm starting to think that curiosity is a fatal flaw) and turned back to look at the burning cities after being instructed not to. Anywho, Lot's daughters realized that there were no men in proximity to impregnate them and carry on their family line. So of course the obvious answer was to get their dad drunk and get pregnant by him.
The last chapters of my reading goes back to the story of Abraham and his long awaited son Isaac so I will wait until tomorrow's blog to include any discussion about that. It will flow better with tomorrow's reading. After what we've discussed today, nobody can say that the Bible is boring. It certainly does not lack drama, suspense, love, hate, and even horror that people love to read about. I'm looking forward to what comes next.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Will we ever learn to listen?
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| My dog helping me read the book of Genesis |
Genesis chapters 12 through 18 was my target reading for this session. These passages focus mainly on Abram (Abraham), his wife Sarai (Sarah) and his nephew Lot. This may be a little telling of me and my issues but the theme that seemed to stand up and shout while I read was that of trusting and waiting on God. Impatience when we really want something is super hard to work through. It's very comforting to see that even Biblical patriarchs had this problem once upon a time.
Over and over again in these scriptures, God tells Abraham that he will be blessed with children. Look how many times God mentions children/descendants before Abraham actually believes it:
I am pretty darn stubborn and it surprised even me to see how many times that God told him he would have descendants, oodles of them, and still Abraham wasn't fully trusting that it would happen. After he had heard all of the above statements directly from the Lord Abraham still proceeded to "[fall] face down; he laughed and said to himself, 'Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old" Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?'" God reassures him yet again after this and finally it seems to sink in that he and Sarah will have a child. The two of them even went as far as trying to rush and force it instead of waiting on God's timing by having Abraham father a child with Hagar, Sarah's maidservant.
- "Abraham I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you."
- "To your offspring I will give this land."
- "I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted."
- "...a son coming from your own body will be your heir."
- "Look up at the heavens and count the stars - if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be."
- "To your descendants I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates..."
- "I will confirm my covenant my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers."
- "You will be the father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you."
- "I will bless [Sarah] and will surely give you a son by her."
How often do we do the same thing that Abraham and Sarah did? Probably more often than we even realize. We ask and ask and ask for something and just don't seem to be getting it. Finances are tight yet there is something we need and can't afford. God has told us over and over again that he will not forsake us and that he will provide but we still worry, worry, worry over this thing anyway. Just like Abraham we have a hard time believing when we aren't seeing the results right away. Okay, granted Abraham was no spring chicken and both he and Sarah were well beyond normal child bearing years but he still was promised something by God and doubted that it would actually happen.
I pray that we all do a better job trusting and being patient, waiting on what God has already promised us. Until tomorrow!
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Water, Water Everywhere
Thanks to some wonderful ladies at my church and our night out indulging in chocolate and white wine (and the biggest root beer float I've ever seen) my Bible was read but my blog however was neglected. My reading was Genesis chapters 6 through 11. FYI blogging about something you read yesterday is a bit harder than when it's fresh in your brain. But I shall try anyway. Here goes...
Oh the flood. The awful flood that that covered the earth and drowned every living thing on it, with the exception of Noah, his family, and the animals they were allowed by God to bring. Sorry all of you believers in the unicorn. Contrary to popular belief, they did not get left behind when it started to rain. I'm pretty sure if God allowed the evil serpent on board He would certainly have brought the unicorn as well. Or maybe at least He would have included a tale of woe about the poor animal's vanity. In all seriousness, the world in those days must have been pretty darn terrible to make God want to wipe it clean and start over. That's a very sobering thought to consider.
Can you imagine the thoughts going through Noah's mind when God asked him to build something he has no clue how to build to protect him from something he's never seen before? Yeah sure no problem right? I'd have been seriously freaking out at first. Fortunately for Noah, he had some divine aid to rely on. It's nice to think that, just like Noah, we still have God's help when we face our floods. You know, those tasks that we aren't sure how to accomplish and that we've never encountered before.
Once the flood was over and the waters receded, Noah and his posse exited the ark. On top of that great mountain God promised Noah that he would never again flood the earth destroying everything on it. How awesome to think that God wasn't just talking to Noah but to all future earth dwellers (including us today). I bet that rainbow that sealed the promise was something to see. I've seen some pretty rainbows before but I always picture this one being way better than any I could ever imagine.
After the flood story came some wonderful "begats." My mother would always talk of how boring it was to read the genealogical passages telling us who begat so-and-so who begat so-and-so who begat so-and-so that appear sporadically all throughout the Old Testament. Her mockingly affectionate dubbing of these passages "the begats" has always stuck with me.
Sandwiched in the middle of these begats is the Tower of Babel story. Until now in biblical history everyone on earth spoke the same language. When the men of this city (later named Babylon) decided to erect a building that would reach to the heavens, the Lord was displeased and confused their language so they could no longer understand each other. The notes in my Bible say that Babel sounds like the Hebrew word for confused. One definition of our english word babble is "to utter in an incoherent, foolish, or meaningless fashion." I'm sure an outsider watching this scene unfold would have gotten quite a laugh. Could you imagine carrying on a conversation in the middle of which the other person started talking in words you had never heard before? You can bet they thought they were losing their minds. I wonder if this is also when white padded rooms were invented?
Oh the flood. The awful flood that that covered the earth and drowned every living thing on it, with the exception of Noah, his family, and the animals they were allowed by God to bring. Sorry all of you believers in the unicorn. Contrary to popular belief, they did not get left behind when it started to rain. I'm pretty sure if God allowed the evil serpent on board He would certainly have brought the unicorn as well. Or maybe at least He would have included a tale of woe about the poor animal's vanity. In all seriousness, the world in those days must have been pretty darn terrible to make God want to wipe it clean and start over. That's a very sobering thought to consider. Can you imagine the thoughts going through Noah's mind when God asked him to build something he has no clue how to build to protect him from something he's never seen before? Yeah sure no problem right? I'd have been seriously freaking out at first. Fortunately for Noah, he had some divine aid to rely on. It's nice to think that, just like Noah, we still have God's help when we face our floods. You know, those tasks that we aren't sure how to accomplish and that we've never encountered before.
Once the flood was over and the waters receded, Noah and his posse exited the ark. On top of that great mountain God promised Noah that he would never again flood the earth destroying everything on it. How awesome to think that God wasn't just talking to Noah but to all future earth dwellers (including us today). I bet that rainbow that sealed the promise was something to see. I've seen some pretty rainbows before but I always picture this one being way better than any I could ever imagine.
After the flood story came some wonderful "begats." My mother would always talk of how boring it was to read the genealogical passages telling us who begat so-and-so who begat so-and-so who begat so-and-so that appear sporadically all throughout the Old Testament. Her mockingly affectionate dubbing of these passages "the begats" has always stuck with me.
Sandwiched in the middle of these begats is the Tower of Babel story. Until now in biblical history everyone on earth spoke the same language. When the men of this city (later named Babylon) decided to erect a building that would reach to the heavens, the Lord was displeased and confused their language so they could no longer understand each other. The notes in my Bible say that Babel sounds like the Hebrew word for confused. One definition of our english word babble is "to utter in an incoherent, foolish, or meaningless fashion." I'm sure an outsider watching this scene unfold would have gotten quite a laugh. Could you imagine carrying on a conversation in the middle of which the other person started talking in words you had never heard before? You can bet they thought they were losing their minds. I wonder if this is also when white padded rooms were invented?
Thursday, November 29, 2012
In the Beginning
Day one is officially in the books. As per my normal procrastinate or die attitude I've waited until the day is almost at a close before beginning my Bible reading. I am however going to pat myself on the back for not totally chickening out and quitting before I even began.
Today, well tonight rather, I read the first five chapters of the book of Genesis. It was a little difficult to not just glaze over chapters one and two which are home to the creation story. It's a biblical story that I've heard probably since I was in utero. Even so, I did try really hard to read it as though it was new to me. I tried to imagine how my five year old - who at the moment is 100% obsessed with stars, planets and anything outer space - would read it, if he could read. When you look at it that way it's pretty darn cool to realize that there's someone who made all that stuff! The genius and artistry it must have taken to arrange everything perfectly so that everything complements and works with everything else. Amazing.
Considering the fact that I just gave birth three months ago, I'm sure most of you can figure pretty quickly which part of chapter three automatically gets the stink eye from me. "To the woman [God] said, 'I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.'" Billions of women have cursed this lady during childbirth for thousands of years. But in all honesty can we really say that we wouldn't have tried the apple too? Ask any parent of a teenager and they'll agree that the quickest way to get them to do anything is to tell them they're not allowed to do it. I'm pretty sure that my curiosity would have eventually overwhelmed me as well. This coming from someone who is terrible at Rook because I always overbid on the nest cards at the beginning of the game. I just have to know what cards are in that pile!
After the expulsion from the Garden of Eden things just go downhill fast. We see the first example of hatred, jealousy, and murder when Cain kills his brother Abel and is cursed to wander the earth for the rest of his life. Goodbye perfect world where you can walk with God everyday and hello fallen existence full of scary stuff. I have to admit this excites the adventure/fantasy reader in me just a little bit. But, when I think about it and realize there's nothing fiction about this book, I'm a little kid hiding under the sheets again.
Yay for day one complete. I'm quite proud that I've actually started this. Let's stay faithful and see this thing through to the end. What do you say people?
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